Songs About Us
by Liz Hollow
Summary: Curtis wants to tell Rosa about Christoph, but he doesn't want to risk ruining such a beautiful thing.


**Songs About Us**

"You went fishing this morning. Do you really need another break?" Manager, who really only allowed me to call him Manager and nothing else, demanded when I pleaded for a rest. The record label had been pushing me hard lately, so a day off was a bit of a rare treat. Of course, _today_ was supposed to be my day off, but Manager ended up calling me in before I even caught a fish.

I didn't think I deserved Manager's overdramatic sigh. It was only fair. I was the one doing all the work here, which wasn't to say he did nothing. But he was only getting paid because I was, and I was only getting paid because I sang and went on TV.

"Christoph…"

I clasped my hands together and pouted. "Manager, please! Just fifteen minutes, that's it."

His eyes narrowed, but he waved me off. I sprinted to the bathroom, threw my street clothes and a hat on, and ran outside. I much preferred my street clothes to the tacky outfits the record label made me wear, but it was a job that I loved and wanted to keep. So, I kind of did whatever they told me to do—or wear.

My record label, like many big-name entertainment companies, was located in downtown Nimbasa, but it was the closest building in the business district to the amusement park. During my longer breaks, I would sometimes head to the amusement park and walk around. This wasn't long enough a break to really go, but I just needed to get out of the agency.

I walked to the southwest part of the park, sitting down on one of the benches where I could see the massive Ferris wheel. I hadn't had a chance to go on it. In fact, I hadn't been on many of the rides here. There was never enough time in the day.

My Xtransceiver buzzed in my pocket, and I sighed. Had the fifteen minutes already been spent?

"Hello?"

Surprise, surprise. Manager's face greeted me on my screen. "Christoph, we need you back now," he told me, and I nodded.

"I'm coming."

I stuck my Xtransceiver in my pocket—or, at least, I thought I did. It wasn't until later, when I went to pull it out of my jeans as I changed back into my work clothes, that I noticed it was missing. And when Manager came into my fitting room no less than ten minutes later, I was still frantically searching through my clothes, half-naked and nearly crying.

"My Xtransceiver," I told him in my panic. "It must've fell out of my pocket somewhere!"

"Just use your old one." Manager walked over to one of the dressing room drawers and pulled out my old one—which I had replaced with my now-lost one just a couple of weeks ago—and threw it at me. "If you lost it on the street, it's gone now."

I pulled at my hair. My life was on that Xtransceiver. It was the only thing that held proof about who I was—both as Curtis, the regular guy with a mom and siblings and speed-dial pizza, and as Christoph, the pop star with a manager and record label. All of those contacts were in the Xtransceiver, and if someone looked into it…

"They need you now, Christoph. Get a shirt on and let's go," Manager ordered, slamming the door shut behind him as he exited the room.

"Five more minutes," I whispered, typing my information into my old Xtransceiver—and old it was. It didn't even have video, and the screen was cracked. But it worked, and within seconds I was calling my lost Xtransceiver. What I hoped to achieve by calling, I wasn't sure. Maybe someone trustworthy picked it up, or maybe it had been delivered to a lost-and-found.

The connection clicked, and I perked up when a female voice answered, "Hello?"

"Hello?" I practically shouted. "Oh! Yes. That's right! I dropped my Xtransceiver. I'm talking on an old Xtransceiver right now, so there's no video. Sorry." I was rambling. Oh, boy. "Thank you for finding it. Truth is, I want to come pick it up right away, but…" I glanced at the door, sure that Manager would come barging in any second again. "Right now, I'm very busy with work, and I don't have time to pick it up. If you don't mind, could you hang on to it for a little bit?"

"Uh, sure, I can do that."

"My name's Chr…" Shoot. Stop. "Ah, I mean… Curtis! Who are you?"

"Rosa. I'm Rosa," the girl responded. Her voice was very soothing—as someone who relied on his voice every day, I had a habit of sort of judging other people by theirs. Her voice was soft, and a bit on the high side, but it was possible that she was a bit older than me.

"Rosa, huh? Okay. When work calms down, I'll come pick it up, so please hang on to it! Also…" I paused, wondering if this was okay. "I'm sure you'll want to keep in touch until I can pick up my Xtransceiver. So, I'll call your Xtransceiver regularly. Bye, then. Thanks again."

"No problem. Bye."

I clicked the Xtransceiver off and stared at the cracked screen. I was really only going to call her to make sure she hadn't sold my Xtransceiver off or anything, but she didn't need to know that. And it wasn't like I would call her all the time. If she wasn't busy, she'd answer, right? Or was calling her a little weird?

Probably weird, but I'd call anyway.

There was a bang on my door, and Manager entered in a rage. "Christoph!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming," I shouted back, and I left my old Xtransceiver on my dressing room table for another time.

* * *

I didn't have a lot of time to talk whenever I called Rosa, but it was enough for me to decide that I liked her. Her voice was like music to my ears, and when she spoke, I couldn't help but smile even though I knew she couldn't see it. But all of our calls were cut short whenever I was called to return to work.

Over the course of three weeks, I had called her nine times, and every time I called, she answered. I wondered if it was stupid of me to get so excited over hearing a stranger's voice, but deep down I knew it was. I was convinced she was older than me, though I couldn't guess by how many years, so she probably wasn't interested in my immature affairs.

We were more similar than I would have guessed, though. Her favorite type of Pokémon was Electric, which happened to be mine, too. She liked to read during her free time, which I liked, too, even though fishing was my favorite. But she was a stronger trainer than me. I trained a couple of Pokémon, but Rosa had six gym badges already and was planning on challenging the seventh and eighth gym leaders as soon as she could.

Finally, at the end of the third week, I had my first day off in that span of time. If I wanted to get my Xtransceiver back, it was now or never.

Manager would be appreciative, anyway, considering how angry he kept getting whenever I called her.

I crossed my fingers as the Xtransceiver prepared to connect the call. On the third ring, Rosa's voice answered, "Hello?"

"Hello! Is this Rosa?" I asked, even though I recognized her voice perfectly now.

"Hey, Curtis." I tried to convince myself that she wasn't actually that excited to hear from me so as not to seem too full of myself, but I was fairly certain she was. "Are you on break again?"

"Actually," I began, "I'm off work today! I'd like to pick up my Xtransceiver. The one you've been keeping for me! Will you come to the Ferris wheel in Nimbasa City? Oh, if you can, of course!"

She hummed. "Mm, sure. I can get there by noon."

"See you there, Rosa! Goodbye!"

Noon… that was two hours from now… that meant that, unless she had other plans, she was coming from quite a distance. I felt a little guilty making her travel, especially when I lived so close to the amusement park, but it was too late to go back on that now. Besides, I was fairly certain I could use the two hours to prepare myself.

I had to look good—but not too good because then I could be recognized. But I didn't want to be as sloppy as I usually was outside of work…

Ah… I was getting too involved.

I threw on some casual clothes and a cap, only to sit around and play with my little brother and sister until it was time to go, so all of my efforts to look decent went to waste anyway. And then the two of them were practically pushing me out the door.

"Bye-bye, Brother! Are you getting your Xtransceiver back today?"

"Hopefully," I said, flicking them each in the forehead and triggering intense giggles before walking out the front door.

Out of habit, I avoided looking at other people when I walked anywhere. It was rude, but I was so terrified of people recognizing me that I didn't know how else to react. I liked having the separate parts of my life—I loved my fans, and I loved meeting them. But I also liked my privacy, and that had been something I demanded when I signed my first contract. Hence, Christoph was born.

It was also out of habit that I tended to react poorly when people _did_ approach me outside of work. So, when someone tapped my shoulder as I stood waiting in front of the Ferris wheel, I nearly jumped out of my shoes.

"No!" I practically shouted. "I'm not what you think!"

And when the girl in front of me—a beauty with dark brown hair pulled into long, draping buns, and a fashion sense that could only be described as strange—smiled as if she had no clue what I was talking about, I let myself relax. She… wasn't here because she knew who I was…

"Are you waiting for me?" she wondered.

"What? You're Rosa?" I was certain that a blush had crept to my cheeks. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else." She just laughed, waving me off. She was my age, after all. "Well, uh… I guess, um, nice to meet you! I'm Curtis! You were different than I imagined, so I was a little surprised…"

I laughed awkwardly, and I considered just running away. This was awful. Screw the Xtransceiver—if I could leave with my dignity, that'd be a success.

"I swear I don't bite. You can relax," Rosa, in a voice as smooth as silk, practically cooed, and if I wasn't blushing yet, I certainly was now.

"I suppose so. We can just talk normally," I agreed, and she held out my Xtransceiver to me. I wanted to kiss it, so thrilled that it had fallen into the right hands and was now back in mine, but I didn't want to scare the girl. So, I just pocketed it, making sure it actually went _in_ my pocket this time and praying it stayed there.

"Thank you, Rosa. I'm sorry I couldn't find the time to pick it up earlier. But I really enjoyed talking with you, so maybe I was a little lucky!" I laughed, but I wanted to smack myself. "Um… if you don't mind, can I still call you sometime?"

Holy shit. Did I say that out loud? I did, didn't I?

But Rosa's smile had yet to falter. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that. I enjoyed talking to you, too."

My heart calmed itself, and I sighed. I was bad at this—so, _so_ bad at this—and seeing Rosa in person and finding out that she was my age and beautiful and kind and… it made my head spin. I knew I was acting like an idiot, but I didn't know how to stop it.

"Phew. I was really scared you might say no!" I took my Xtransceiver out again (so much for keeping it in my pocket) and held it against Rosa's pink one, and we were registered once again. "Ah, can I ask you one more thing? I called you on the Xtransceiver too often, and Ma…" Oops. Stop. "I mean, one of my coworkers… got really mad at me… So, Rosa, could you call me?"

"It won't seem so troublesome if I'm the one calling you, is that it?" Was she annoyed? I couldn't tell. "Sure, it's not a problem at all."

"What? Really?" Nope, not annoyed, thank goodness. "Thanks… Rosa, you're really nice. I'm usually at work, and sometimes I have trouble picking up a signal…" Actually, the truth was that I kept my Xtransceiver off most of the time at work, but for some reason saying that seemed rude. "But I'd like it if you check your Xtransceiver often and give me a call." My nervous habit of laughing when I said stupid things was getting a workout today. "Well, I'll be heading home. Goodbye, Rosa!"

"Bye, Curtis! Nice meeting you!"

I waved as I turned to go, and Rosa waved back. In that moment, something clicked in my head—the beat of my heart was like music, and there were unsaid words repeating in my mind.

I sprinted back home and grabbed a pen and paper, and then I began to write.

* * *

Part of me, the more pessimistic and slightly more realistic part, thought that Rosa only said she'd call to be nice, so I didn't think she would actually follow through. It was only two days after I met her in person that she called me while I walked outside during a break, and I nearly dropped my Xtransceiver in excitement.

I liked seeing her on my screen now. As enjoyable as talking to her was, and listening to her soft voice really made me happy, seeing her now and connecting that voice to a face made it all the more exciting.

We talked and talked, and every time she called, I ended up chatting too long and getting scolded by Manager. I showed up late to interviews twice already, and I nearly got taken off from a TV appearance because I didn't make it on time. Manager wanted my head, and I saw in his murderous expressions that the only reason I lived was because he wanted a paycheck.

"You have a concert in three weeks, Christoph. Get your act together, or you can kiss this upcoming movie deal goodbye, got it? Nancy shows more dedication than you, and she frankly deserves this more," Manager snapped at me one afternoon when I walked in late.

I hung my head, and the sound of the door slamming behind Manager reminded me of shattering glass. He was right. I needed to get my act together… It was unprofessional of me to keep showing up late to events, but I lost track of time when Rosa called.

Maybe Nancy _did_ deserve it more…

But I didn't want that. I wanted it, too. Hell, I _deserved_ it. I worked just as hard as Nancy did!

The next day, I thought about not answering when Rosa called—I shouldn't have turned my Xtransceiver on at all—but my anger at Manager and Nancy burned within me. I couldn't hold it in any longer, and even though I knew it wasn't fair for me to take it out on Rosa, I needed to talk. And I couldn't talk with my mom because I just fought with her the other day about how much I was working; if I told her about this, she'd encourage me to let Nancy take the movie deal.

"What's wrong?" Rosa asked. She caught on the other day when I told her about my mom, too. How could she read me so well? "You seem off."

"Um… I hope you can help me with this…" I pulled the tip of my hat down as a person passed me on the street. "I have this person who's really good at what we do at our workplace, and I can't help but feel competitive."

Rosa pondered this for a moment, and for a second I thought the connection had gone bad again. "Well, I think it's okay to feel competitive," she finally said. "I have friends who I compete with all the time, and I think humans are naturally competitive. As long as it's not in the way of your relationship with your coworker, you shouldn't feel bad about your feelings. Just do your best. That's all that matters."

Why did she have such a way with words—why did she have the ability to make me feel so much better?

"Yeah! I feel better talking to you, Rosa. I guess it's not her but my own self that I need to deal with." I glanced at my watch, in which I had invested in order to make sure I showed back up on time. "Ah, have to go. Thanks, Rosa. Talk to you later."

"Bye, Curtis!"

I stared at the screen as she faded from it, and I couldn't help but wonder how long it'd be until I saw her again.

* * *

It wasn't that long until I saw her; in fact, just a couple of days later, I had another day off, and I met her again at the Nimbasa amusement park. The Ferris wheel was a hotspot for couples, namely because it was a rule that two people had to go in a gondola at a time. So, of course I'd never been, but I convinced Rosa to ride with me.

I thought about telling her that I liked her… had a crush on her. But in my head, it sounded juvenile and stupid, so I suppressed the thought and stood a couple of feet away from her as we rode. It was Rosa who closed the distance between us, and she watched me with that beautiful smile.

The day ended too quickly, and I went home a little dissatisfied. I should have told her…

And from that day on, every time she called, I considered how I didn't tell her and how I needed to and how I was terrified of ending this wonderful thing we had and how I wanted to move beyond this and how I couldn't wait to see her again every time she hung up—all of those thoughts repeated in my head, but I wouldn't make a move.

I should have. I should have before my mistake.

Though I usually left my Xtransceiver off while I worked, I happened to leave it on that day because my mom said she was going to call. But I was an idiot, and I decided to take a break when I wasn't supposed to; Manager let me, since it was some down time, but I really wished he hadn't.

I picked up the Xtransceiver after it rang several times—still in my work clothes.

"Oh, sorry I've kept you wai—uh-oh," I cut off when I saw Rosa, slamming the Xtransceiver off and down on the counter.

"Shoot," I muttered, and I turned my Xtransceiver off for the rest of the day.

* * *

I couldn't tell if Rosa was acting like she didn't see anything the day I answered dressed as Christoph, but she did a good job if she was. She seemed to buy my explanation that a coworker answered and left it at that.

To try to take her mind off things, I offered to meet her for a trade the next time I was free, and things weren't awkward when I saw her again—well, other than my regular old awkward self, but she was probably used to that by now.

Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with Rosa, and she deserved more than anyone to know about Christoph. But no matter how many times I saw her at Nimbasa, no matter how many times she called, I couldn't bring myself to tell her. And if I couldn't tell her that, how could I ever deserve her?

I poured my frustrations into a song—the song that had been building about us since the first time I met her. My record label provided songs for me; I didn't write my own. But I was inspired by her, and whether that was good or bad, I didn't really know. No one would ever hear it, anyway, since my label would never let me sing it, but it was there.

Rosa called me the day before my concert. "Curtis, hi! I have a question for you."

"Um, hi," I greeted, taking a sip of lemon water. Manager told me it'd make my voice stronger; the record label may have made me a star in the most fabricated way, but I _did_ actually sing at my concerts, even if I was a master lip-syncher on TV. "Shoot."

"All right, so… I know that this probably isn't your cup of tea because it's not for most guys, but I have two tickets to the Christoph concert tomorrow night at eight." My heart sunk, but I hoped she couldn't see my panic on my face. "My friend was supposed to go with me, but he bailed at the last minute. I was hoping you might want to go?"

"Uh… ah…" What was I supposed to say? Now was a better moment than ever to tell her that she was actually going to see me tomorrow, but I couldn't get the words to come out. "I'm sorry, Rosa. I have a, um, work commitment."

She frowned, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. "Oh, no worries. Well, regardless, I'll be there. I don't care if no one comes with me—I bought these tickets over a year ago, and I am _not_ going to miss this concert. I love Christoph."

My heart skipped a beat again, but this time for another reason entirely. She loved me…

Well, not me. Sort of me. Not that she knew that.

"I just thought I'd ask. Sorry to bother you. Bye, Curtis."

The screen went black before I could tell her that she wasn't bothering me, and I sighed. Great. Rosa was going to my concert tomorrow, and I'd have to perform knowing she was there. But she wouldn't know I was there—well, _I_ wasn't really there, but Christoph obviously was since it was a Christoph concert, but…

Ugh. I needed to tell her.

Wait a second.

I needed to tell her, and I was pretty sure I had an idea of how to do it.

* * *

When I got into Christoph's clothes and had my hair done up, I became him. I was confident, full of life, and everything about my life as Curtis faded away. Suddenly, I was a star—this popular celebrity who appeared on TV and sang live at concerts and sold hundreds of thousands of CDs. Everyone loved Christoph.

"Are you ready? You're on in five. The opening act has cleaned up their set and yours is ready," the stage manager, a friendly young woman who was nothing but professional, shouted into my dressing room. I nodded, and she waved, backing out of the room.

"This is your first major concert in two years, Christoph." Manager stood from where he sat in the sofa on the other side of the room and walked towards me. He smacked me on the back, and I fixed my monitor in my ear. "This is a big deal for you. If you get good reviews on this, you'll be set. Just make sure you kill it out there."

"Got it." Once the monitor was set in my ear, I stood and smiled at Manager. "You're more nervous than I am."

"This is a big deal."

Truth was, this _was_ a big deal, and I _was _nervous. Rosa was out there somewhere in that crowd, and she was waiting for Christoph to take the stage and put on the perfect concert. And I was about to betray everything I knew as Christoph, the guy who took no risks and followed the rules set by the record label and Manager.

I smacked Manager on the back, taking his role, and walked out of the dressing room. When I reached the elevator, which I would use to rise into the stage, the stage manager gave me a thumbs up.

"You're on, Christoph. Blow their minds," she mouthed to me.

And then the elevator moved.

One of the downfalls of the in-ear monitor was that I couldn't hear the cheers of the crowd as well as I wanted. But when those lights went down on the stage and I began rising from below, I remembered that what I heard was only a fraction of the noise. And it was _loud_. Everyone out there came for me.

I sang. I sang like the star that I was, bouncing on the stage and performing the choreographed dance I practiced for weeks. It sounded perfect in my ear, and the movements felt right in my bones. Everything was as it should be.

When my first song ended, I tugged the IEM out of my ear. "How's everyone doing?"

The massive cheers could've brought tears to my eyes—and they would have had it been Curtis up here. But Christoph was used to this and reveled in it. So, I raised my arms above my head and gestured for more, and the crowd screamed for me in return. I laughed, and the sound echoed through the stadium.

"Now that's what I like to hear." I breathed deep, all of that dancing beginning to catch up with me. "Wow, look at this place. This is my, uh, first concert in Unova in years, and let me tell you, it is so good to be back!" More cheers. "How 'bout we turn this into a party?"

I stuck the IEM back in my ear and turned to the band behind me. The drums banged, and the sound was brought perfectly clear into my ear. The guitar followed, and the electronic beat came on top of it all. And when I sang, it was crisp and clear and good.

The concert went off without a hitch. I sang through my set, talking with the crowd every once in awhile, not that they could talk back. It was part of the act—part of the talent. Anyone could get up on a stage and sing, but not anyone could get up on a stage and win over the hearts of the audience. All of those people out there felt like the concert was for _them_.

Really, it was just for one person.

After my second-to-last song, I tugged my monitor out again. "So, I'm gonna ask my band to take a break on this next song."

"What are you doing?" Manager's voice asked in my left ear, where the IEM still stuck. I pulled that one out, too.

"I just, uh—ah, can I borrow that?" I walked over to the guitarist and held my hand out, and he passed me his acoustic guitar with a bit of confusion and hesitancy. This wasn't planned. The stage manager didn't have a plan for this—the lights and sounds director didn't know what to do. But I'd make this as easy for them as possible.

I grabbed a stool from the side of the stage, the one I used for my ballads, and set it front and center. My mic was ready, and as the spotlight dropped on me once I sat on the stool, I was good to go.

"So… a couple of months ago, I met a girl through chance. I lost my Xtransceiver, and this girl happened to find it. I called my number, hoping that it was in good hands, and she answered. Since that day, I've talked with her during my breaks, I've met her on my days off… and I've fallen in love with her."

The coos from the crowd made me smile, but all of a sudden it was like the stage was on fire. Rosa had to know that I was talking about her by now. And the fact that she now knew terrified me. Who was to say that this didn't change everything?

"Um, I wrote a couple of songs about us—about her, I should say, and I want to sing one of them for you. For _you_," I corrected, though I couldn't see her in the crowd, "Rosa."

I stuck the IEMs back in my ears and strummed the guitar. It came through clear, and there weren't any voices in my head, either. Manager was backing off.

Hell, this could ruin _everything_. But I would do it.

I could only hear my voice and the guitar in my head as I sang. The crowd stayed silent through the whole performance—but I could hardly call it that. The songs Christoph sang… _those_ were performances. They were acts. This song poured from me, from Curtis, and all of the words I built up overflowed like poetry.

My heart ached. The fear of losing Rosa after tonight overwhelmed me, but the fear of Rosa falling for Christoph instead of Curtis hurt even more. Everyone loved Christoph—Rosa already loved him. But I wanted her to love _me_.

The last chord from the guitar vibrated in my fingers, and I let it cut off. The crowd's cheers were not like the others—they weren't cheers for the electronic dance music for which I was known; they were wishes of luck, and maybe solemn wishes that Rosa was one of them. And she was, but that secret stayed between us.

"Thank you!" I called to the crowd, raising my arms above my head again, and the guitar dangled near my face. "How about we get the band back out here for one last song?"

* * *

I kept my Xtransceiver on all night, even as I signed autographs after the concert. By three o'clock in the morning, though, I was back home in bed, and I had yet to hear anything from Rosa. I didn't know whether she was giving me time to feel sufficiently horrified with what I had done or if she just didn't want to talk to me ever again.

Manager surprised me, though. After the concert ended, he swung an arm over my shoulders and dug his knuckles into my head. "Pull a stunt like that again, and I'll kill you. But that was a really beautiful song."

Half-surprised, I should say.

But those weren't the words repeating in my head. My own melody played again and again, and I held my pillow over my ears, still unable to stifle them. "Look at me," I sang. "Look at me."

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but when the sun rose, I still lay awake in my bed.

* * *

I always had a day off after my concerts, and this one was no exception. When I bounded down the stairs, having gotten no sleep, my mom was waiting there with coffee and a warm embrace. "I'm so proud of you," she told me, and my little brother and sister grabbed my legs. "That was such a good concert, honey. You hear from the girl?"

Blushing, I pulled myself away from my family and took a sip of my coffee. "Not yet. I don't really want to talk about it."

"Mommy made pancakes," my little sister told me, tugging my free hand. I smiled at her—how nice being so young and naïve. I wanted to tell her to never grow up and let her heart get broken, but it was unfortunately bound to happen.

My brother tugged on my shirt hem. "Let's eat."

I nodded, sitting at the table between my two siblings. My mom sat on the other side from me, and she set the stack of pancakes down.

I wasn't hungry, despite not having eaten since before my concert yesterday, but I was almost too tired to care. I stuffed chunks of pancake into my mouth as a robot might, chewing in a daze and swallowing too soon.

The sound of my Xtransceiver ringing from my bedroom brought me to my feet within seconds, though, and I shot up the stairs. I could hear my brother and sister giggling, and my mom quickly scolded them for laughing. It didn't make one bit of difference to me, though. If Rosa was the one calling…

I flopped on my bed and grabbed my Xtransceiver, staring at her name on the screen. I probably looked terrible—no, I didn't care.

"Hello?"

Rosa wasn't smiling. But, hell, neither was I.

"Rosa, I'm sorry," I began quickly, before she could get a word in. "I didn't mean to lie to you or put you on the spot like that—"

"No, no, Curtis—eh, um, Christoph—"

Oh, no. "Curtis. My name is Curtis. Christoph is just a stage name I use," I explained, and she nodded patiently on the screen.

"Okay. That makes it easy, then." Finally, she smiled, and I prayed that meant everything was okay. "Curtis, are you off work today? Do you think you'd be able to meet me at the amusement park again? Soon? I want to talk to you about this."

"Yeah. I can be there in… an hour."

We parted ways, and I took a shower—I definitely needed one—and got ready. I threw on the most normal, boring clothes I owned (which, honestly, was everything in my closet) and pulled the old hat as snuggly as I could over my hair. Forty-five minutes later, I was out the door and on my way to the park, my heart beating out of my chest with every step.

It was the first time Rosa had beaten me to our spot in front of the Ferris wheel. I approached her with my eyes turned down, but when her shoes appeared in my line of vision, I finally looked up at her.

"That song was really beautiful," she told me in a whisper. "I just wanted to make sure I told you that."

"Thanks. I don't, um… write my own songs very often. I wasn't sure how it would turn out." My cheeks burned. This wasn't going the way I wanted. "Listen, I wanted to tell you sooner. I really did. I just was afraid of what would happen when I _did_ tell you, and when you told me you were going to my concert…"

She curled one of the strands in her pigtail and wrapped it around her finger. "I think I knew. I thought you looked like him, and when you showed up as Christoph that day on the Xtransceiver, it was hard for me to brush it off as a coincidence. But, you know…" She paused, and I used the short break from her voice to make my heart slow down. "I always liked _you_, Curtis. You're funny and kind… Christoph is just a guy on TV."

Rosa leaned towards me, and I wasn't sure what she was doing—but when she kissed my cheek, I touched the spot and felt my fingers tingle.

"I have something to tell you, too," she continued. "I'm, uh… the Champion of the Unova region. You know I was taking the gym challenge, but I finished and beat the Elite Four and Iris… I wanted to tell you, too, but I didn't know when or how."

I burst out laughing, but I couldn't explain why. The fact that Rosa kept this a secret, too, was so ridiculously hilarious to me, and I covered my mouth so as not to be rude. But I couldn't suppress my laughter, and I had to wipe tears from my eyes. Rosa stared at me with wide eyes, surely getting the wrong idea, and I waved a hand in front of my face.

"Sorry. I'm only laughing because we both know so much about each other but can't share the most important things."

"Nah, those aren't the most important things. I fell in love with Curtis, not Christoph—you fell in love with Rosa, not the Champion." I let the Butterfrees swarm my stomach, and the spot where she kissed me on the cheek tingled again. "If I could write a song for you, I would, but your ears would bleed at the sound."

I laughed again—but not so long as the last time. Rosa's voice was so beautiful that I couldn't think of her singing voice as anything less than wonderful.

"Then I'll just have to write another," I decided, and she kissed me again—this time on my lips. The touch was soft and her smell was sweet, and when she breathed against me, it was warm and cool at the same time.

Rosa pulled away from me and brushed the hair under the visor of my hat. "I want to know everything else. Write a song about you."

"Nah," I laughed. "I'll only write songs about us."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I slaved for _days_ trying to come up with lyrics to Curtis's song, and they all sucked. I'm sure you'll all be happier without them. I'm not meant to be a songwriter, haha.

I'm replaying Black 2 and have been working on this sidequest again, and it's just so cute. I can't resist the fluff.


End file.
